About 400 Hoover retirees will have their current health care benefits extended until April as part of a class-action lawsuit that is still pending in federal court.

The employees — known as subclass B — retired between 1983 and 1993. A federal judge in Youngstown previously dropped those former Hoover Co. employees from a lawsuit that includes three other classes of retirees.

The lawsuit argues the former workers were promised lifetime health insurance through a series of union contracts that go back to 1980. At issue is whether Whirlpool can change the health benefits it provides to retired Hoover employees.

The outcome of the bench trial will affect up to around 2,000 retirees (and their spouses) who retired from Hoover and its successors, Maytag and Whirlpool, between 1980 and 2007.

A group of retirees filed the lawsuit in 2011 after Whirlpool announced it was changing its health insurance benefits.

However, following a trial last month, the plaintiffs asked the judge to reinstate the subclass B retirees into the lawsuit based on testimony in court.

U.S. District Judge Benita Y. Pearson has not made a ruling on the overall lawsuit. However, following a teleconference Friday — involving the two parties and the judge — Whirlpool agreed to extend the current health coverage for subclass B until April instead of being reduced substantially in January, said Brian Zimmerman, one of the attorneys representing the former workers.

An attorney for Whirlpool referred questions about the lawsuit to a corporation spokesman. A message was left seeking comment.

The other retirees will receive unchanged health coverage until April as originally planned. Zimmerman said that should give the judge enough time to rule on the case.

The key issues are: Should the retirees receive lifetime health coverage? And can "reasonable changes" be made to the health care plan?

Whirlpool previously told Medicare-eligible retirees that the company no longer would provide supplemental health benefits and was increasing the co-payments for prescription drug benefits.

The company informed retirees who were not eligible for Medicare that their benefits also would change.

Whirlpool acquired Hoover during a 2006 merger with Maytag, which had purchased Hoover in 1989.

If Whirlpool wins the lawsuit, Zimmerman said, he believes nothing would stop the company from dropping the health coverage for the retirees completely.